


Through the Forest

by optimustaud



Series: The Quest [4]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Gen, Mind Palace, disturbing imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 19:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5714302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/optimustaud/pseuds/optimustaud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patchwork wakes up in the ruins of a fortress.  A Knight and an Amazon prepare him for his journey through the forest</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Forest

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to Stone Towers
> 
> This probably won't make much sense unless you read that one first. Like Stone Towers I am playing with a writing style I am not entirely comfortable with. Comments appreciated.
> 
> Rife with symbolism. If you have questions feel free to leave them in the comments.

Patchwork wakes one morning amongst the remains of a great stone fortress.  He has no idea where he is or how he came to be there, he only knows that he is.  He takes his time exploring the ruins of what once was a mighty fortress and wonders what could have happened to bring down such an imposing structure.

 

The only thing Patchwork knows is that he is a strange creature. His skin is an odd mishmash of black and white felt hastily sewn together with thick, sloppy stitches.  Sometimes he can feel something crawling around just beneath his skin.  At night when he is very still he can see the thing move inside of him as it travels through his insides.

 

He is frightened and he is lonely.  He doesn’t know what that thing is just beneath his skin, he only knows that he doesn’t want it there. 

 

One morning he sees a silver light traveling over the hill as the sun rises.  As the light approaches he realizes that it is only the flash of sunlight over a knight’s gleaming silver armor.  Patchwork is filled with fear and wonder.  He thinks that the knight will probably kill him, but he is so lonely he approaches the man anyway.  He thinks that even if he does die it would be better than living alone with the creature that crawls just beneath his skin.

 

The knight is silent and cold, but he is company.  He is allowed to live, but not allowed to leave the remains of the fortress.  Patchwork learns this the hard way.  They live together in silence.  Each night is guard builds a fire and settles down to rest and Patchwork watches him from beyond the ring of light.  The knight doesn’t seem to want his company and he is too afraid to approach.

 

“Come here,”  The knight says one evening.  Patchwork almost cries in relief.

 

The pattern of his days change after that.  Patchwork’s jailor becomes his teacher and his friend.  The knight talks to him.  He listens to Patchwork’s fears without passing judgement.  The knight feeds him and keeps him warm at night.  He tells Patchwork stories about the world beyond the ruins.

 

“I love you,”  Patchwork says one day.  He means it.

 

The knight smiles and strokes his black and white hair.  “If you love me then you need to become me.”

 

“Who are you?”

 

“I am Death.”

 

Patchwork thinks that being Death wouldn’t be such a bad thing.  He wonders if there is enough room in this world for two Deaths.

 

One day an Amazon warrior dressed in gold arrives at the ruins.  She is warm and she fills him with a sharp aching feeling that he doesn’t quite understand.  

 

“I have come to prepare you for your journey,” she says when they first meet.  

 

“But, I can’t leave,” he says looking to where Death patrols the edges of the ruins.

 

“Someday that will change,” she says and Patchwork believes her.

 

The three of them gather together at night.  Patchwork thinks that now he can understand the words ‘Family’ and ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’.  For the first time in his short existence he feels safe and loved.  He doesn’t want to let go of that feeling.

 

The thing crawling beneath his skin grows restless the more comfortable he becomes.  At night it wraps itself around his insides and squeezes him painfully.   _ You can’t build a future on lies,  _ it whispers to him,  _ Someday you will have to wake up. _

 

One day he loses his patience with the creature and pulls at a loose thread on his arm until the flap of felt comes free.  From the breach in his patchwork skin insects,  rotted chunks of meat, and inky black blood falls free.  He continues to pull the thread free, unraveling the stitches that hold him together.  He digs into the slop that makes up his insides searching desperately for the creature that has wormed its way through his body.  

 

The creature only laughs at his desperation and winds itself further away from the self inflicted wound on his arm.   _ You are a fool, motley man.  By hurting me you only hurt yourself. _

 

Patchwork screams.

 

Death and the Amazon come to him.  They hold him down with hard hands and tear open more of his stitching while he wails in terror.  They reach inside him and scoop out his rotted insides.  They try their best, but they can’t quite remove all of it nor do they find the creature that lives inside of him.

 

“ Don't do that again,” Death warns him.  “ Don't dig too deep, don't look inside yourself again.  You are not like us.  You are a beast we have tamed.”

 

Patchwork cries harder when he hears this.  

 

“ Don't worry,” Death says.  “ We can fix you.”  Then Death rips open his chest and pulls out half of his heart.  The Amazon does the same.  They each take their half hearts and gently place them inside Patchwork’s mangled chest.  They replace his stuffing with carnations and spider lilies.  The find a pile of water damaged books and stuff the pages inside when they run out of flowers.  Then they carefully sew him back together. 

 

When he recovers Death says, “Go into the forest.”

 

Patchwork obeys.  The odd heart beats irregularly in his chest. He can feel the creature squirming inside him, but it is quite for now.  

 

He doesn’t look back as he steps into the dense line of trees that surround the ruins he lived in and as he walks forward he can feel himself changing.  He does just as the Amazon instructed, he walks until he finds a circle of stones and then he goes to sleep.

 

He wakes up as a beetle, his head filled with  memories of being Patchwork.  He lives a simple life as a beetle.  Then one day while he is clinging to the bark of a tree he is eaten by a gecko.

 

The next day he wakes up a gecko, his head filled with memories of being an insect.  He feeds on beetles and other insects.  This time he lives to old age.  His body decomposes in the dirt, its elements broken down to feed new life.  The next time he wakes up he is a blade of grass.

 

His life as a blade of grass is short.  He is eaten by a ewe and reborn as a ewe.  The ewe’s life is even shorter.  She is devoured by a tiger.

  
  


As a tiger he could move through the forest freely.  By then he did not know how long he had been traveling or even why he had been traveling to begin with.  

 

One day he reaches the edge of the forest.  He sees a village and people.  The sight of those people moves something deep within him, reminding him of the life he had before he had entered the forest.  He moves forward past the line of trees and when the villagers catch sight of him they shoot him.  

  
  


He hatches as a new creature empty of everything  save for the vague memory of Death and the golden Amazon. He is a tiny wren kept in a golden cage.  He lives in the village with a family of three brothers and a sister.  He is well cared for by the children even if the oldest brother is a little cold.  He loves them fiercely.  He molds himself into shapes that do not fit just to make those children happy.  He lives so that he does not have to hear that sibilant voice echoing inside him.  He pretends that he can't see the worms wriggling just beneath his skin.

  
  


Death comes one night.  He creeps into the house while the children are asleep.  The wren remembers him as a friend although he does not understand why.

 

“Are you happy?” Death asks.

 

“I am,” the wren replies.

 

It is enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to fineinthemorning for encouraging me to keep writing in this world.


End file.
